New race for the Diaries. Hamilton on 12-13th November, 2016.
Make sure you have all the date noted down. You would want to miss one!
https://vmpra.org.au/event-calander-2/
Tag Archives: Hamilton
Hamilton 2015 – Event Report
Back on October 24-25 we held our VIC State Championships at Hamilton. Once again, it was great to have the South Australians come across to race with us. Without them, the numbers would’ve been on the low side.
On Friday, the weather was spectacular as everybody arrived and testing and setting was carried out. I heard that Shaun Jacobsen even was having a go at one of Daniel’s Minute Masters as Shaun in leading up to joining the ranks of F3D fliers.
Saturday morning arrived with more great weather. After setting up the field, we were off racing with F400 first up. Numbers were quite good for this class (13 competitors) flying including Daniel Arapakis and John Schmidli back flying this class again.
Four rounds of F400 was raced before commencing Q500 racing. Numbers for this class where on the low side so as per usual practice, we all go out to the start line with the drum of fuel and do all our refueling out on the line. This makes the turnaround between heats a lot faster. It was great to see Tom Allen there racing as he returns to pylon racing after many year away with his beautifully finished Banshee Sport Q500 racer.
There were four of these Banshee Sport Q500 models for the first round. Unfortunately Jim Orenshaw and John Schmidli had another coming together while going around pylon #1. This is the third time this year they’ve collision with each other. Unfortunately this was the first race that Jim had with his brand-new Banshee Q500 model which was a replacement for his previously mid-aired Q500 plane. John Schmidli was luckier this time, with only sustaining wingtip damage and a broken propeller and was able to glide in for a landing. Four rounds of this class which was completed.
Next up was F3D, the premier class that we race. It was our intention to fly this class for as many rounds as possible as we had a feeling the weather for the following day would not be so kind. We manage to run 6 rounds of this class before finishing up for the day. It was great to have helpers from the Hamilton club manning the #1 pylon cage as well as pylon 2 and 3 Judges.
The Hamilton club members also provided a canteen throughout the weekend including a big fry up breakfast for the Sunday morning. This was greatly appreciated.
As feared, when we arrived at the field on Sunday morning, conditions were very windy. We set up our planes hoping that things will settle down but as time to start arrived, there was no action happening.
After quite a time of waiting to see what the conditions would bring, it was decided that there would be no flying that day which meant the competition would only consist of the rounds flown on the Saturday. Four rounds of F400, four rounds of Q500 and six rounds of F3D.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
Results
Class – FA1
Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Tom Wetherill
3rd Andrew Davies
Fastest Time: 59.10 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors: 8
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – F400
Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Brian Steele
3rd Andrew Davies
Fastest Time: 66.91 – Shaun Jacobsen
No. of competitors: 13
Course – 10.5 Laps
Class – Q500
Places:
1st Jim Orenshaw
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Andrew Arapakis
Fastest Time: 94.79 – Jim Orenshaw
No. of competitors: 7
Course – 10.5 Laps
Season Championship
The following is how the season championship stands currently.
FA1
1st – Daniel Arapakis
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Tom Wetherill
The top 2 positions remains the same but Tom Wetherill has jumped up to 3rd position from 5th.
F400
1st – Brian Steele
2nd – Glenn Matthews
3rd – Shaun Jacobsen
Like FA1, the top 2 positions remained the same but Shaun Jacobsen jumped up to 3rd position also from 5th.
Q500
1st – Jim Orenshaw
2nd – John Schmidli
3rd – Andrew Arapakis
Again, the top 2 positions remained the same and Andrew Arapakis has moved into 3rd position from 4th.
Season Fastest Time
There was a new fastest times for F400 and Q500 at Hamilton. Well done Shaun Jacobsen and Jim Orenshaw.
FA1 – Leigh Hocken – 57.38
F400 – Shaun Jacobsen – 66.91
Q500 – Jim Orenshaw – 94.79
Next Event
The next comp is also the last one for the year and will be held at Bazza’s Paddock at Munro on November 28 and 29. Come along and have a great time racing at this greta venue. There won’t be another event until early in February 2016 at Camperdown.
Make sure you check the new events that are listed in the Event Calendar and put them in your diary.
Check Out Complete Calendar >>>
Event Report and Photos– John Schmidli
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our knowledge at the time of publishing. It is written from my perspective and reflects how I have experienced this event.
Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. They are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others when time permits.
If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos that are supplied to me provided it is fair and reasonable.
Quick ReferenceEvent Result |
Hamilton 2014 – Event Report
The final event on the VMPRA 2014 calendar was held at the Hamilton Model Aeroplane Club’s field in Branxholme, Victoria, on the weekend of 15 – 16 November 2014. The event attracted a very good number of entries – from both Victoria as well as a large contingent from South Australia. The weather forecast for the weekend was for changeable conditions, with storms expected. As usual, many competitors camped at the field on Friday and settled in for the weekend.
On Saturday morning the course was set up and racing got underway with four rounds of F400. This class attracted an impressive 14 entries. Shaun Jacobsen set the early pace and there was a lot of close racing throughout the field. Times for the 10 ½ laps were not particularly fast due to the conditions.
Andrew Arapakis's Viper came off the worst
Q500 Sport commenced following a break for lunch and this class attracted 11 entries. However, the numbers were soon reduced in the first round when 3 models came together on the ground! After that, things settled down. However, the wind was increasing and times dropped off. After four rounds, John Schmidli was in the lead and was closely followed by Jim Orenshaw. Times were also slower than usual in Q500.
F3D was next on the schedule, and this class attracted 12 entries. There were a number of new models being tested on the weekend – Beau Murphy had a Redonkulous and Daniel Arapakis, Andrew Davies and Tom Wetherill all had new Veyrons. Unfortunately, a major storm front came through in the early afternoon, which was followed by another one a bit later on. This brought thunder, lightning, heavy rain and strong winds. As a result, the day’s racing was called off and F3D was not flown.
During the break, a meeting was held to discuss rules and other related matters. It was agreed that VMPRA would target running eight rounds instead of nine (before dropping two scores) for each of its competitions starting in 2015. This change aligns the VMPRA procedures with the international rules for F3D.
Tom Wetherill's new Mc Laren themed Vayron
On Sunday morning, there was a slight delay while waiting for the weather to clear and racing got underway with seven rounds of F3D. Conditions began to deteriorate as a strong cross wind and turbulence coming off the nearby trees made flying very difficult. A record number of 200s were posted as some pilots had problems launching their models.
At the end of the seven rounds, Andrew Davies was in first place with a score of 344.5. He flew an older model and saved the Veyron for another day. He had the reliability in the difficult conditions and was the only pilot not to get any 200’s.
Tom Jacobsen from South Australia, flying an old style Evo, was in second with a score of 432.7. Daniel Arapakis showed very good form for the first time out with his Veyron and finished third with a score of 437.4. Times were not fast due to the very windy conditions, with Glenn Matthews posting the fastest time for the event of 62.8 for 10 ½ laps.
After a break for lunch, three additional rounds of Q500 Sport were flown. John Schmidli extended his lead and finished with a score of 619.5. He was followed by Jim Orenshaw in second with a score of 644.2 and Tom Wetherill with a score of 648.4.
Team SA's Collection of aircraft
Last up were the remaining three rounds of F400. Shaun Jacobsen flew very well and finished well ahead with a score of 412.6. Glenn Matthews was second with a score of 432.7 and Andrew Davies was having a good weekend finishing third with a score of 437.4.
Certificates were handed out to the place getters at the end of the day and the course equipment was packed up. VMPRA extended its thanks to the Hamilton club for hosting the event and for providing course workers and great food all weekend.
Report – Tom Wetherill.
Editor’s – Comments:
- The Hamilton club facilities where in great condition. It appeared that there had been recent painting and asphalting around the club house and toilet facilities.
- Andrew Arapakis put on an awesome meal on Friday night. Thanks for organizing this Andrew.
- There was a lot of difficulty taking off at times with a strong cross-wind and several competitors flying new aircraft types. Daniel Arapakis was racing a new Veyron and Beau Murphy a Redonkulous. Tom Wetherill and Andrew Davies had new Veyron models at the field with Andrew making a maiden flight of his aircraft.
- There was also a fairly large amount of models damaged for one reason or another. As Tom mentioned, on Saturday, there was the coming together of 3 Q500s when taking off. On Sunday James Hurley lost his TeeQue Q500 model around pylon #2. Tom Wetherill had his very new AR-6 go off the air and do a fly-away which surprisingly was found by Matt Young in a newly plowed field. Unfortunately it was destroyed. The last race for the day (F400) was cut short having only completed half a lap before a mid-air between myself (John Schmidli) and Mike Savill.
- It was good to have pylon judges on all pylons on Saturday and most of Sunday.
Check out the event photo gallery>>>
Results – FA1
Places:
1st Andrew Davies
2nd Tom Jacobsen
3rd Daniel Arapakis
Fastest Time: 62.87 – Glenn Matthews
No. of competitors: 12
Course – 10.5 Laps
Results – F400
Places:
1st Shaun Jacobsen
2nd Glenn Matthews
3rd Andrew Davies
Fastest Time: 66.43 – Shaun Jacobsen
No. of competitors: 14
Course – 10.5 Laps
Results – Q500
Places:
1st John Schmidli
2nd Jim Orenshaw
3rd Tom Wetherill
Fastest Time: 96.96 – John Schmidli
No. of competitors: 11
Course – 10.5 Laps
Season Championship
We have now finished the 1st half of the season championship and the following is how the top 3 positions sit.
FA1
With Andrew Davies win at this event, he has now jumped up into the top position with Ranjit Phelan dropping a position to 2nd place. Glenn Matthews has jumped from 5th up to 3rd place.
1 – Andrew Davies
2 – Ranjit Phelan
3 – Glenn Matthews
F400 – Results
The top 3 are all on 28 points and only separated by total time scores with Glenn Matthews in top position followed by Shaun Jacobsen and in 3rd place Ranjit Phelan.
1 – Glenn Matthews
2 – Shaun Jacobsen
3 – Ranjit Phelan
Q500 – Results
Only the top 2 positions have changed with John Schmidli in 1st position and James Hurley now in 2nd. Tom Wetherill remains in 3rd.
1 – John Schmidli
2 – James Hurley
3 – Tom Wetherill
F3T – World Air Games – Dubai
On the Saturday, during the impromptu meeting that was held while waiting for the weather to clear, the subject of a F3T international event was discussed. Here is a link to some information about this event and a letter from Rob Metkemeijer – Chairman RC pylon racing subcommittee.
http://www.fai.org/events/fai-world-air-games
http://www.rc-network.de/forum/showthread.php/486673-World-Air-Games-Dubai December-2015
F3T ( Q40 ) has been selected to be one of the 3 aeromodelling classes at the upcoming World Air Games in Dubai, December 2015. The other two are F2D control line combat and Aerobatic Indoor Aero Musicals.
World Air Games is a kind of Olympics for airsports; this 4th edition will include Powered and Glider Aerobatics, Aeromodelling, Amateur-Built and Experimental Aircraft, Ballooning, Gyrocopters, Hang Gliding, Helicopters, Microlights, Paramotors, and Parachuting.http://www.fai.org/news/38367-fai-wo…taged-in-dubai
We have chosen F3T because the aim of the World Air Games is a sort of display competition for public, and F3T means close racing with highly reliable planes and engines, which is exiting for public!
All information is not available yet, but for the moment we think of the following format:
• 16 competitors from all continents, see for selection of pilots next item
• 4 planes per race
• a full competition, so every pilot flies all the others ( 5 races for each pilot), scoring by points, AMA system, and best fastest time per pilot if there is a tie.(points is easiest to understand for the public)
• 2 * 2 semi final flights between the 8 best, scoring by points , tie break by fastest time.
• final between the 4 best from the semi finals.
The location is Skydive Dubai, see attachment and under. There will be flown on the grass close to the runway. The size of the site is appr. 400 * 250 metres. We plan to have the public at appr 70 distance to the site behind safety nets.
It may be expected that the organizers will invite the competitors and pay for travel and stay; the only thing we have to do is to get the best pilots with the highest flying ability there.
There is no fixed selection format for this, but for now I suggest the following as a first guess, which reflects a little the performance level of the best half at the last F3D champs:
a total of 16 pilots:
6 from North, Middle and South America (Canada, US, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela)
5 from Europe
3 from Australia/New Zealand
1 from Qatar ( the local touch, Abdullah and Smitty, they also will be in charge for a part of the local organization)
1 from Japan
Competitions for selection :
a. Phoenix feb. 2015 for North, Middle and South America,
b. 2 F3T 2015 Euro cup competitions in Europe, ( e,g, Modena, Siziano, Tours, Senftenberg?) to be selected.
c. Australia could use their own system. Of course we would like to see their top pilots ( guys like Callow, Murphy, Mees if they want to fly F3T here)
d. Japan could do the same,
e. Abdullah and Smitty will be simply invited.
Please give feedback on this, we need to act to get the best pilots there. I hope it will be the best pylon display ever with the first big title in F3T.
The organizer will need help for a couple of things, like getting a timing system with display.
Our CIAM president would like to see little cameras on the planes for projection on large displays. I don’t know if that could work in our type of planes, but possibly one of you has ideas.
With kind regards
Rob Metkemeijer
chairman RC pylon racing sub committee.
Up and coming Events
That’s all the events for this year.
The next formal event will be Camperdown on Feb 7-8, 2015
On Jan 11, 2015, there is the Sandown R/C Festival which will involve some members in a static display, Glenn Matthews will be flying a Q500 and Chris Callow is coming down to do an F3D demonstration.
http://www.rcfestival.com.au/
Event Report – Tom Wetherill.
Additional content – John Schmidli
Photos – John Schmidli and Andrew Arapakis
Editing/Proof reading – Caroline Schmidli
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our knowledge at the time of publishing. It is written from my perspective and reflects how I have experienced this event.
Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. They are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others when time permits.
If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos that are supplied to me provided it is fair and reasonable.
Quick ReferenceEvent Result |
November 2014 – Update
This weekend we’re off to Hamilton. There will be some of us camping out at the field. As usual, the Hamilton club will be providing lunch on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the Hamilton club will be asking for an indication of numbers for breakfast on Sunday. Thanks in advance to the club for this catering.
There has been an update of events on the event calender so make sure you pencil them in to your diaries so not to miss a race.
There has also be a end-of-year fun fly/practice/test flight weekend scheduled for November 29-30 down at Bazza’s paddock at Munro. Thanks to Barry for making his field available.
See you all down at Hamilton for the last race weekend for the year.
John Schmidli
Hamilton 2013 – VMPRA State Championship – Event Report
Event
On the week end of October 12-13 (2013) the VMPRA held the Victorian State Pylon Championships which was held in Hamilton. Ironically, this is the event that we see a good number of our South Australian friend come across to enjoy a great weekend of pylon racing. On the Friday afternoon when I arrived, there were more of the SA guys at the field than Victorians. All up, there was 7 SA pilots plus a few partners along for the trip and calling.
There was quite a few of us camping over the weekend despite some dire weather predictions. It turned out to be a very pleasant spot to camp. The field at Hamilton was very green with plenty of grass and solid ground. No need for me to get towed out of the mud this time.
We had a great deal of help from the Hamilton members They manning #1 pylon and also number 2 & 3 pylons where manned all weekend. Along with the catering, the VMPRA were very grateful to the Hamilton members.
All weekend we had fairly windy condition with a threat of worsening conditions on the Sunday, so we managed to get 5 round of each class raced just in case Sunday racing was cut short. Yep… It was! F400 completed their 4 rounds on Sunday but Q500 was cut short and FA1 didn’t get to fly at all. It’s been a on-going theme since the new racing season started on July.
Results
FA1
This class being the Formula One of pylon racing and travelling at similar speeds, people who see this class for the first time can not believe what they are seeing.
Leigh Hocken was on form for this weekend after an early hickup in the form of a spectacular wing failure while practicing on Saturday morning. Gary Davidson also lost his model. He now knows where pylon #3 is as he hit it during a race.
We had a couple of pilots from SA flying in the class (Stuart Humpherson & Tom Jacobsen).
Places:
1st Leigh Hocken
2nd Barry Murphy
3rd Brian Steele
Fastest Time: 61.98 – Leigh Hocken
No. of competitors – 10
Course – 10.5 Lap
F400
A good size field for this class with 13 compeditor of which 6 were from SA.
Mike Kellet lost his KD Racer (jnr) after he lost it around #1.
Places:
1st Glenn Matthews
2nd Andrew Davies
3rd Terry O;Connor
Fastest Time: 67.89 – Andrew Davies
No. of competitors – 13
Course – 10.5 Lap
Q500
Not my best weekend for this class as I went home with 2 broken models but all caused during dodgy landings. I think the was one less Viper after John Yianni crashed his. The Tee-Que 500 is now becoming the more prevalent Q500 model now. Daniel was flying his new Tee-Que on the weekend.
Places:
1st Tom Weatherill
2nd John Schmidli
3rd Daniel Arakakis
Fastest Time: 99:33 – Daniel Arapakis
No. of competitors – 9
Course – 10.5 Lap
Check out the results in detail
2013-2014 Season Championship
FA1 – Barry Murphy has consolidated his lead further now being 9 points in the lead. Brian Steele has jumped up to 2nd position and Gary Davidson has slipped one position down to 3rd.
F400 – Glenn Matthews and Andrew Davies are in 1st & 2nd place respectively on equal points and Gary Davidson is only 2 points behind them in 3rd place. This is a really close battle.
Q500 – I’ve (John Schmidli) increased my lead with Daniel Arapakis 6 points behind in 2nd place having displacing Jim Orenshaw who is now in 3rd position.
Next Event
The next event is on November 23-24th and is back at Bazza’s Paddock near Munro. This purpose-build pylon racing field is fantastic and we always enjoys racing there. I hope to see lots of competitors at this event. If you need to find out the location, as it’s a private field, you can contact a member of the committee and we can give you directions. This is a great place to go pylon racing for the first time, so grab a Quickie model come along.
Another great chance to try pylon racing for yourself, is a club event at the LDMFA on November 10. Although not an official VMPRA event, this is open to anybody as long as you are a VMAA member. It will be a Q500, Sports & Electric pylon race (10.5 laps only). Visit the LDMFA site to find out more.
The championship table has been updated and there is also a photo gallery from this event.
John Schmidli (Report & Photos)
The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my knowledge at the time of publishing. It is written from my perspective and reflects how I have experienced this event.Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. They are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others when time permits.
If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos that are supplied to me provided it is fair and reasonable.
Quick ReferenceEvent Result |
October Update
Coming up this weekend (at time of publishing) is the Victorian State Championships being held at Hamilton. There probably hasn’t been enough made of the fact that this is our state championship but everybody would like the bragging rights to be a place getter at this event. I believe there is a good contingency coming from South Australia also which will be great.
Hamilton 2012 - FA1 starting line
It’s a busy time with a pylon event having been held up in Queensland last weekend and one being held the week after our state champs in NSW. Talking about the Queensland event. I believe Beau and Barry Murphy made a flying visit to Maryborough to compete in the F5D World Championship team select event. Congratulation to Beau and Barry for winning that event and for securing a place on the Australian Team. Beau’s fastest time was a 55.76 (mighty fast).
I need to point out an error in the Swan Hill Event Report. I had Glenn Matthews down as having the fastest time in F400. This should have read Gary Davidson with a time of 65.41.
Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you even spot an error in an web posts.
Hope to see you all down at Hamilton.
John Schmidli
Event Report – Hamilton 2012
What a great weekend of pylon racing we had at Hamilton this year. The weather was great for Friday practice and Saturday’s racing. Sunday was a little windy but not bad enough to stop us flying. This event was our Victorian State Championships with trophies provided by the VMAA. On top of this, the F3D racing was the last of the Australian World Championship team selection trials. The aim was to fly 9 rounds of each class but with priority given to completing the F3D comp particularly as Tyler & Warren Mees needed to return to QLD asap to work on Monday.
Saturday morning, we started on time with 3 rounds of Q500 & F400 and finished up at 12 noon sharp. F3D started at 12:30pm after 25 minutes of testing and we were able to run the races through very efficiently, especially with the great help of the Hamilton club members who were manning the pylons (1,2 & 3) plus the start finish line as the 10 lap FAI course was being used for the team trials. Before we knew it, 9 rounds where complete. There was some very fast and spectacular racing with positions on the team at stake.
Sunday was a bit more relaxed affair although there was lots of close racing to be had with 6 rounds of Q500 & F400 to be completed. This was all done and dusted by lunch time. After another great BBQ lunch along with a vast selection of slices. we packed up, presented trophies and headed off home at about 2pm, a lot early than we normally finish.
Team Selection Results
With Beau Murphy’s win, he secured a place on the Australian team. Leigh Hocken and Tyler Mee’s fort it out for a possible 3 place on the team with Tyler winning this battle after his final re-run. I say a possible position because it’s not currently clear as to whether Chris Callow is going to be competing as a member of the team or as the returning World Champion. Time will tell!
The 2 team selection events run here in Victoria this year have been a high-light with having quite a few visitors from interstate. This time, besides Tyler & Warren driving down from QLD, we had the SA contingency of Stuart Humpherson, Trevor Pearce and Frank Weeks racing. The more competitors there are, the more fun to be had.
We also had 2 new pilots flying in Q500. Daniel Arapakis flew his new Viper having flown previously a trainer at Werribee. What a great job he did while enjoying the challenge of bringing his race times down, race after race. Also Paul Pollock flew Q500 for the first time and although a very experience r/c pilot, really enjoyed racing this affordable yet challenging class.
Season Championship
F3D – No changes in 1st & 2nd position, but Glenn Matthews has now moved up to 3rd place.
F400 – Gary Davidson & Jim Orenshaw have swapped places, Gary now in 1st place and like in F3D, Glenn Matthews has popped up into 3rd place.
Q500 – James Hurley & John Schmidli have swapped places now with James in 1st position (JS – it pains me to say). Ian Haigh remains in 3rd place.
Next Event
The next event is at Bazza’s Padock down at Munro on November 24-25, 2012.
Also note that we have our first event for the year (Camperdown) now listed on the event calender, so be sure to pencil this into your diary.
The championship table has been updated and there is also a photo gallery from this event.
October Update
Victorian State Championships – Hamilton
Not long now until the Victorian State Championships, being held in Hamilton on October 20-21, 2012. This will also be the final selection trial event for the 2013 Australian F3D World Championship Team. We should see another good turn out with some interstate competitors from Queensland and New South Wales. Often at Hamilton there will also be a South Australian contingency.
This event will consist of our usual 3 classes, FA1 (AUST F3D) F400 (VIC) & Q500 so all you Q500 racers can come racing after the Cohuna recess.
Notes:
- The field will be available for practice on Friday.
- There will be breakfast available at the field on both days.
- The field closes at 9:00am on each day.
Hamilton 2011
General Meeting
Also to be held on the Hamilton weekend is the next VMPRA general meeting.
- Venue: Lake Hamilton Motor Village and Holiday Park, 8 Ballarat Road, Hamilton.
- Start time: 8:00 pm
Note: Visitors to park out front
So come along and have your say and support pylon racing in Victoria.
State Champs – Hamilton Results
The results for the Hamilton VMPRA State Championships have been posted.
See Results>>>